I'll be honest
There have been many people who have recently asked me how it's like to be a graduate. Especially since I've done it twice now, most of my friends who are still students are curious as to what life is like after graduation.
I'm not going to lie about this and am going to be perfectly honest about this:
It sucks.
Being a graduate sucks because from when you step into University till the time you leave, you're expected to study, be involved in societies, have a job/work experience, volunteer and at the same time expected to socialise. If you know me, and you've seen me at University, you will know that I have done all of that and I started applying for jobs at the beginning of my third year because I knew how competitive jobs were and I wanted to secure mine before I left University. But the reality is not always perfect and as much as I have tried my best to do everything, I sometimes wish that I just sat down and studied and got perfect grades and did nothing at all because it seems to me that time and time again, these people are the ones that end up getting a job.
I split my time to so many places. My typical day would be go to uni at 7am, go to the library until 9am, go to class, eat, socialise, go to classes/work, go to society meeting, go to work, go home, watch a movie and eat dinner, sleep. Repeat.
Yes, I was always on the go, always looking for things to do and my weekends would be used to either go on short breaks or to attend more society things. I was Vice President of the baking society in my third year and every Saturday, I would attend baking society and even before, I would attend baking society sessions on a Saturday anyway, and have most definitely turned down going to baking sessions because I had already done the same recipe. So, you see, my time at University was nothing short of gaining more experience, whether it be work wise, social communication skills, studies or anything along the lines of what you might have experienced whilst at University.
And yet. Yet, I cannot find a job. Nothing to lead me to a fulfilling career that was promised to me as a hopeful A-levels candidate looking to study abroad, never having lived abroad on my own, for the first time. I've been on holidays with family abroad but nothing quite like living on your own in a foreign country.
It frustrates me really when time and time again when I am looking for full time employment, I'm told such things like, "there's nothing wrong with you, we just wished you would have applied earlier. Unfortunately, on this occasion we are only hiring one candidate." My advice to recruiters, if you have a foreign graduate and a local/EU graduate and you're only looking for one candidate to fill the post, don't bother calling the foreign graduate. PERIOD. Why? Because, we're going for a graduate job, and we're both recent graduates with probably equal experience and even if I did have more experience, I wouldn't make the cut because there is a need to prove that there isn't any local/EU candidates that can do the job and for a graduate job, sorry to burst your bubble, but everyone gets training for the job and as long as they are willing to learn, they'll be able to do it. So, please don't waste our precious time, money and effort because that is just disrespectful because we never had the chance anyway.
I know a lot of recruiters think that "What if the international candidate is better?". My answer to that, is no, you're most likely going to go for the local candidate, so don't worry about giving them a chance. I don't need a chance, I need an opportunity. There is a difference. A chance is maybe if we think she may be better, and an opportunity is let's see what she have and let's put her as the candidate that we want to choose unless she proves otherwise.
The recruitment process these days are so soul and mind numbing to the extent the automated processes from filling out the application form to the final stages are all via the computer and you only finally hear someone's voice at the final stages of the recruitment process and then finally, you attend an assessment center where your every move is being watched and everything you say is being assessed and you have so many other hopeful candidates there, sometimes even up to 8 for a single vacancy. Recruiters get paid for their time, because it is part of their role in this process, but most candidates don't. Most of us have to pay out of our own pockets to get to the recruitment location, then we have to factor in the time out of part-time employment if they are and also a whole load of different factors depending on where they are coming from, like accommodation, food and all that if they were to be travelling further.
I've been through all of this and time and time again I have been rejected because I require a visa to work in the country and I know this because when I call HR and ask for feedback, they always say the same thing and all I can say to that is that's fine, but please, I'd rather not be called for the interview at all because that would save me from having any hope at all rather than be crushed at the end of it all with the disappointment that I have not got a job and I'm dipping into my savings for something that I could have after all used to do something different.
I'm still interested in working abroad and I have accepted the situation that this would keep on happening, but I've also tried to make it even more glaring the fact that I would require a work visa even after I am called for an interview, calling and confirming with the company for probably the hundredth time that I do require a visa and them saying that's fine and still putting me through the vigorous recruitment process with 7 other candidates in the room with some having more experience than me and me still being the least likely to get the job because of the nature of how work visas are given.
I don't know where my job applications would take me and I am still actively searching for opportunities across the globe, so we will see where this would take me.
But let me just say to you that it's not fun after graduating and if you already possess the right to work in the country that you're applying for, it's still not easy to get a job because you've got so many unnecessary hoops that you have to jump through. As an international candidate, you have to be clear with what you want to do and you can't just apply to jobs because you want to stay in the country. I'm happy to relocate wherever as long as they have well paying job opportunities with importantly a work life balance. Where I come from, a work life balance is unheard of, you go to work at 8/9am and you get back at 9pm, I don't mind it if that happens occasionally, but this is the norm in the country and if you go back early, you're not hardworking enough and you get turned down for promotions even if you're performing significantly better than someone who goes home late, staying in the office and playing games. That is just the reality of the situation and maybe this will change in the future but until then, I don't want to give my whole life to work, because having that work life balance is very important not only for my sanity but because I would like to venture into different things, have hobbies and also spend time with the people I love.
I don't know where my path is heading but I am very grateful for everything that I have done and all the people that I have met but if I knew that these were to be the circumstance when I graduated, then I WOULD have done it differently and potentially never even get a degree. But these are just my two pence worth and this is in no way a criticism to anyone I have met in the past or present.
Till my next post. xx
I'm not going to lie about this and am going to be perfectly honest about this:
It sucks.
Being a graduate sucks because from when you step into University till the time you leave, you're expected to study, be involved in societies, have a job/work experience, volunteer and at the same time expected to socialise. If you know me, and you've seen me at University, you will know that I have done all of that and I started applying for jobs at the beginning of my third year because I knew how competitive jobs were and I wanted to secure mine before I left University. But the reality is not always perfect and as much as I have tried my best to do everything, I sometimes wish that I just sat down and studied and got perfect grades and did nothing at all because it seems to me that time and time again, these people are the ones that end up getting a job.
I split my time to so many places. My typical day would be go to uni at 7am, go to the library until 9am, go to class, eat, socialise, go to classes/work, go to society meeting, go to work, go home, watch a movie and eat dinner, sleep. Repeat.
Yes, I was always on the go, always looking for things to do and my weekends would be used to either go on short breaks or to attend more society things. I was Vice President of the baking society in my third year and every Saturday, I would attend baking society and even before, I would attend baking society sessions on a Saturday anyway, and have most definitely turned down going to baking sessions because I had already done the same recipe. So, you see, my time at University was nothing short of gaining more experience, whether it be work wise, social communication skills, studies or anything along the lines of what you might have experienced whilst at University.
And yet. Yet, I cannot find a job. Nothing to lead me to a fulfilling career that was promised to me as a hopeful A-levels candidate looking to study abroad, never having lived abroad on my own, for the first time. I've been on holidays with family abroad but nothing quite like living on your own in a foreign country.
It frustrates me really when time and time again when I am looking for full time employment, I'm told such things like, "there's nothing wrong with you, we just wished you would have applied earlier. Unfortunately, on this occasion we are only hiring one candidate." My advice to recruiters, if you have a foreign graduate and a local/EU graduate and you're only looking for one candidate to fill the post, don't bother calling the foreign graduate. PERIOD. Why? Because, we're going for a graduate job, and we're both recent graduates with probably equal experience and even if I did have more experience, I wouldn't make the cut because there is a need to prove that there isn't any local/EU candidates that can do the job and for a graduate job, sorry to burst your bubble, but everyone gets training for the job and as long as they are willing to learn, they'll be able to do it. So, please don't waste our precious time, money and effort because that is just disrespectful because we never had the chance anyway.
I know a lot of recruiters think that "What if the international candidate is better?". My answer to that, is no, you're most likely going to go for the local candidate, so don't worry about giving them a chance. I don't need a chance, I need an opportunity. There is a difference. A chance is maybe if we think she may be better, and an opportunity is let's see what she have and let's put her as the candidate that we want to choose unless she proves otherwise.
The recruitment process these days are so soul and mind numbing to the extent the automated processes from filling out the application form to the final stages are all via the computer and you only finally hear someone's voice at the final stages of the recruitment process and then finally, you attend an assessment center where your every move is being watched and everything you say is being assessed and you have so many other hopeful candidates there, sometimes even up to 8 for a single vacancy. Recruiters get paid for their time, because it is part of their role in this process, but most candidates don't. Most of us have to pay out of our own pockets to get to the recruitment location, then we have to factor in the time out of part-time employment if they are and also a whole load of different factors depending on where they are coming from, like accommodation, food and all that if they were to be travelling further.
I've been through all of this and time and time again I have been rejected because I require a visa to work in the country and I know this because when I call HR and ask for feedback, they always say the same thing and all I can say to that is that's fine, but please, I'd rather not be called for the interview at all because that would save me from having any hope at all rather than be crushed at the end of it all with the disappointment that I have not got a job and I'm dipping into my savings for something that I could have after all used to do something different.
I'm still interested in working abroad and I have accepted the situation that this would keep on happening, but I've also tried to make it even more glaring the fact that I would require a work visa even after I am called for an interview, calling and confirming with the company for probably the hundredth time that I do require a visa and them saying that's fine and still putting me through the vigorous recruitment process with 7 other candidates in the room with some having more experience than me and me still being the least likely to get the job because of the nature of how work visas are given.
I don't know where my job applications would take me and I am still actively searching for opportunities across the globe, so we will see where this would take me.
But let me just say to you that it's not fun after graduating and if you already possess the right to work in the country that you're applying for, it's still not easy to get a job because you've got so many unnecessary hoops that you have to jump through. As an international candidate, you have to be clear with what you want to do and you can't just apply to jobs because you want to stay in the country. I'm happy to relocate wherever as long as they have well paying job opportunities with importantly a work life balance. Where I come from, a work life balance is unheard of, you go to work at 8/9am and you get back at 9pm, I don't mind it if that happens occasionally, but this is the norm in the country and if you go back early, you're not hardworking enough and you get turned down for promotions even if you're performing significantly better than someone who goes home late, staying in the office and playing games. That is just the reality of the situation and maybe this will change in the future but until then, I don't want to give my whole life to work, because having that work life balance is very important not only for my sanity but because I would like to venture into different things, have hobbies and also spend time with the people I love.
I don't know where my path is heading but I am very grateful for everything that I have done and all the people that I have met but if I knew that these were to be the circumstance when I graduated, then I WOULD have done it differently and potentially never even get a degree. But these are just my two pence worth and this is in no way a criticism to anyone I have met in the past or present.
Till my next post. xx
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